Debrecen fit the bill as a typical provincial club ripe for corruption in the eyes of intercontinental match-fixers

As Debrecen’s team ambled out apologetically to near silence before their
Hungarian Cup tie with Letavertes on Wednesday, it was easy to see how this
provincial club in eastern Europe fell prey to intercontinental match-fixers.

Clear view: a smattering of spectators watch Debrecen easily win their cup-tie against LetavertesPhoto: JOHN TOWNSEND

By Ben Rumsby, in Debrecen

11:00PM GMT 06 Feb 2013

This is not Anfield. In fact, is it hard to imagine a venue so different from that which hosted their now-infamous Champions League match at Liverpool.

A caged AstroTurf pitch in front of barely 200 non-paying spectators on a chilly Wednesday lunchtime was nevertheless the stage for what was the equivalent of an FA Cup quarter-final.

Admittedly, the match was only being played on one of Debrecen’s all-weather training pitches because the adjacent 10,000-seat Olah Gabor Stadium was waterlogged.

Not that the visiting team had any complaints about the change of venue – why would they when they are all on their opponents’ payroll?

Letavertes are Debrecen’s club in the third tier of Hungarian football (they also have one in the second tier), something not uncommon in the country. And while there is no suggestion Wednesday’s game was rigged, the 8-0 scoreline for the hosts – 10-0 on aggregate – and first-half red card for the visitors simply reinforced how easily it could have been. It was just this kind of apparent no-contest those who tried to fix the Liverpool-Debrecen game had been attracted to in 2009.

After all, who would bat an eyelid if the Champions League first-timers were given a sound beating by the five-time European Cup winners?

Wednesday’s match was infinitely more low key, of course, but it was still possible to bet on the outcome in Britain, where about £30,000 was matched on the Betfair gambling website alone. And it may not have taken a bribe of hundreds of thousands of pounds to influence the outcome, with several of the players on show earning as little as £2,000 a year, the minimum wage in Hungary.

Even the spattering of first-team stars Debrecen deigned to field would not have been making more than about £41,000 per annum, a sum some of their former Champions League opponents earn in a morning.

Chief executive Sandor Szilagyi denied that made his players any more susceptible to criminal elements. “In Italy or in other European countries, there is match-fixing as well, and the salaries are much higher,” he told Telegraph Sport.

The two-year ban given to goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic over his failure to report an approach by those who tried to fix the Liverpool game was the only time such corruption had touched Debrecen, according to Szilagyi.

He was bemused by the attention given to what happened before a match 3½ years ago, even many of the details – and Liverpool’s involvement – was only made public this week. “This case was closed in 2009 from the Uefa side,” he said.

Szilagyi revealed he had been bombarded with calls since the Liverpool game hit the headlines after Europol announced the outcome of its own investigation into match-fixing.

“We are not angry with Europol but we are surprised because there were more matches, not just the Liverpool-DVSC match,” he said. “We don’t understand why people are focusing on this.”

Szilagyi admitted Poleksic “made a mistake” but defended the decision to stand by him because he “didn’t do any match-fixing”.

A former player and ex-Uefa linesman himself, Szilagyi left little doubt what would have happened had the keeper taken the bribe. “The penalty should be a life ban because that will make them think twice about doing it,” he said.

Szilagyi insisted he had “never” been approached himself to throw a match while he was officiating but added: “Match-fixing is a new thing, especially in Hungary, because we were socialist and it was not common.”

Rumours abound that it is now rife, with one experienced local journalist claiming it was “impossible to trust anybody” involved in Hungarian football.

Honved’s 2009 Champions League qualifier against Fenerbahce was the subject of a Uefa investigation, while three of the country’s referees were banned for life by Fifa for match-fixing in 2011.

Szilagyi admitted the scourge would never be eradicated. “While people live on earth, no. They will always find a way to try to get more money because it’s big money.”